In Rebuttal to Michael Ray’s Column

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Editor,

I was appalled when I read Michael Ray’s column of Jan. 20. The Indy requests that letters to the editor be about local issues, yet you printed a column that quotes an unnamed “younger guy” spewing racial epithets as if they were representative of Orange County Republicans. It is obvious to me that Mr. Ray doesn’t really know whereof he speaks. He quotes the man who “drove him around Orange County and explained the facts of life about politics here” during the 1960s. Having been very active in the GOP at that time, I know that this man’s opinions were not those of the local activists. I don’t believe that he was “a stalwart in the local Republican party” either.  Many of Mr. Ray’s statements are wrong, i.e.  OC’s representatives were not “so far-right wing.” The only conservatives elected were Bob Badham and John Schmitz.  The others were moderate or liberal. Dick Hanna was in Congress, and he wouldn’t have been called anything but a liberal. The Lincoln Club did not back any conservative candidates.

As Mr. Ray continued his column, he jumped from the 60s to the present time, badmouthing current Republicans who take issue with President Obama’s policies, claiming that it “is nothing more than racist claptrap.” He stresses their need to hate, as if no one could possibly have an honest difference of opinion from his. He was hoping that we all would believe his false statements about the 60s; unfortunately some of us knew the truth then, and know it now.

 

Arlene Hamann, Laguna Beach

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